Abstract
To determine whether glutamine consumption is associated with embryo quality and aneuploidy, a retrospective study was conducted in an in vitro fertilization center. Spent embryo culture media from patients undergoing assisted reproduction treatment and preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) were obtained on day 3 of in vitro culture. Embryo quality was assessed for cell number and fragmentation rate. PGT for aneuploidy was performed using whole genome amplification and DNA sequencing. Glutamine levels in spent embryo culture media were analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The results demonstrated that glutamine was a primary contributor to the classification of the good-quality and poor-quality embryos based on the orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis model. Glutamine consumption in the poor-quality embryos was significantly higher than that in the good-quality embryos (P < 0.05). A significant increase in glutamine consumption was observed from aneuploid embryos compared with that from euploid embryos (P < 0.01). The Pearson correlation coefficients between embryo quality and glutamine consumption, and between aneuploidy and glutamine consumption, were 0.430 and 0.757, respectively. The area under the ROC curve was 0.938 (95% CI: 0.902–0.975) for identifying aneuploidy. Animal experiments demonstrate that increased glutamine consumption may be a compensatory mechanism to mitigate oxidative stress. Our data suggest that glutamine consumption is associated with embryo quality and aneuploidy. Glutamine may serve as a molecular indicator for embryo assessment and aneuploidy testing.
Highlights
Considerable efforts have been made to seek noninvasive methods for the assessment of embryo development and aneuploidy, but accurate, rapid, and efficient methods are still lacking [1]
The aim of this study was to investigate the association of glutamine consumption in embryos with embryo quality and aneuploidy using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) approaches
Glutamine Consumption is Increased in Poor‐Quality Embryos and in Aneuploidy Embryos
Summary
Considerable efforts have been made to seek noninvasive methods for the assessment of embryo development and aneuploidy, but accurate, rapid, and efficient methods are still lacking [1]. There have been many studies investigating the role of amino acids in embryo development. The addition of glutamine to embryo culture medium has beneficial effects on embryo development in mice [11], pigs [12], and humans [13]. Houghton et al measured amino acid turnover by embryos from days 2–3 postinsemination in media supplemented with a physiological mixture of amino acids, and they found that there was more depletion of glutamine in embryos that subsequently arrested prior to the blastocyst stage than in embryos that developed successfully [14]. Glutamine is crucial to cell growth and development, and differences in glutamine consumption in embryos may reflect differences in embryo viability
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